While many eyes were on College Easterns this weekend, just a few miles away some future college players battled the elements and each other at HS Easterns. While great games ensued, in the end the elements prevailed as play was stopped at the start of semifinals and will be concluded at a later date.
Here’s a team by team performance breakdown:
East Chapel Hill – East had a fairly large squad and was able to use everyone top to bottom without any major dropoff. They didn’t have any 1 standout player you could key on and disrupt their game. With young players able to contribute now and a quality group of coaches to help develop those players I’d say they are a team on the rise in NC.
CHUF – CHUF has several very talented players and the best overall disc skills I saw this weekend. Every player they put on the field had quality throws. The team played smart and took what the defense gave them. I believe CHUF was the best team I saw this weekend.
Enloe – Enloe is a young team out of the Raleigh area. With one U-20 tryout on the line (I think his name is Jake Mcgoogan) it was easy to know who to key on, his quality lefty throws have several very tall targets including one at 6’7″ providing the team a quality deep game. Being a new team some of the fundamentals and field awareness haven’t developed yet, but they played with great energy and enthusiasm all day, and have a great coach to move them forward.
Carolina Forest – CF was playing their first tournament, making the trip up from South Carolina. Most established teams wish they had as many players as CF had on the sideline this weekend. CF was competitive all weekend long and had some great athletes on the team. If the team continues to develop the ultimate skills they are lacking now they will be a threat to more developed teams in other states very soon. The state of SC should take notice now though.
Carolina Friends – Friends seemed to play a fairly short roster from what I saw this weekend. The team has 2 players (#9 being the best) who were very strong and versatile beating you with the disc and off it, the rest of the team did a good job of smart conservative play and resetting to the leaders. I thought they were the second or third best team I saw this weekend but I think the depth may become an issue into Sunday play at tournaments.
Cardinal Gibbons – CG in the spring is not the same team I saw in the fall. With several great athletes back from other sports the team is much more talented. Their game is big hucking to their athletes and believing they can get it back on D if they need to. They have a lot of size and speed, if you can negate that by forcing them to make a lot of throws they will give you opportunities though. They are right there with friends in terms of my ranking of the teams I saw this weekend.
Hoggard – Hoggard played their tails off. I’m not sure they were in any game this weekend, with just 9 kids on the sideline and not much experience as a team they lacked in skills and flow. But they were a great bunch of kids who worked hard and embody the spirit that ultimate is based on.
LC Bird – This years Bird team isn’t quite as strong as years past, but they continue to find great athletes to reload with. Bird teams never lack for speed and hops, and they always have a couple players with big time deep throws to send it to their athletes. I believe this team is still a contender in VA if they play their best game when they need to and definitely shouldn’t be taken lightly. They will only get better as the new players learn more about the game this spring.
Feature photo of Woodside Y’s Paolo Yalung against East Chapel Hill.
Comments Policy: At Skyd, we value all legitimate contributions to the discussion of ultimate. However, please ensure your input is respectful. Hateful, slanderous, or disrespectful comments will be deleted. For grammatical, factual, and typographic errors, instead of leaving a comment, please e-mail our editors directly at editors [at] skydmagazine.com.